January 10, 2007

"Supreme Court hears Wash state lawsuit on use of union fees"

AP offers this report, which begins: "Supreme Court justices indicated Wednesday they are inclined to uphold a Washington state law preventing unions from using fees they get from workers for political activities." Allison Hayward, who attended the argument, agrees with the prediction of reversal, but hopes "that the rationale is the protection of nonmember rights rather than some amorphous 'integrity' argument" which was apparently discussed at oral argument. UPDATE: The transcript of today's oral argument is here. From my quick perusal of the argument, I would not be surprised to see a 9-0 reversal (though perhaps multiple opinions).